Image

The Mid-American Conference (MAC) recently named Christiane Healey, senior lecturer in the Department of Biology and leadership fellow in the Undergraduate Student Success Center, as one of the 13 institutional winners of the Outstanding Faculty Award for Student Success.

Now in its seventh year, the award recognizes the outstanding efforts of MAC faculty to support and develop students both inside and outside of the classroom in celebration of the conference’s commitment to a holistic student experience and the creation of an environment that supports success in school and in life.

Healey has over 20 years of teaching experience that span experiential, service, writing-intensive and team-based learning. A prior recipient of the Mahoney Teaching Award and the College Outstanding Teacher Award, her teaching practice has benefited from teaching-focused communities, and she has launched numerous mentoring groups to create community and space for teaching innovation among faculty. In her varied leadership roles, Healey leads initiatives to improve the student success and the undergraduate experience at UMass Amherst. Currently, she is working to strengthen students’ course persistence and academic success through the academic alert initiative. Engaging campus partners, including Athletics, has proven highly successful, with instructor participation increasing by 50% during 2025.

For the Office of Faculty Development, Healey has also assessed the needs of and developed professional development programming for non-tenure track faculty on long-term appointments who teach thousands of undergraduate students each year, including first-year students in gateway courses. Her leadership in student success and teaching-focused faculty development was recognized with the inaugural 2025 UMass Delphi Leadership Award and was sponsored to join the 2025 cohort in the HERS Leadership Institute.

More information on the MAC Outstanding Faculty Award for Student Success, including the complete list of institutional awardees, can be found on the MAC website.